


Spare Time

by CatherinePenn



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27336514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatherinePenn/pseuds/CatherinePenn
Summary: Oikawa keeps picking up jobs to keep himself financially afloat. Iwaizumi is tired of him never being around.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Kudos: 43





	Spare Time

“What did you do to your hands?” Iwaizumi asked, reaching out to take Oikawa’s hand into his own. 

It was no surprise when Oikawa and Iwaizumi started dating near the end of high school, and it also wasn’t a surprise when they were still dating 5 years later. Neither of the men had pursued volleyball as a career choice, Iwaizumi following in his dad’s footsteps to become a chiropractor and Oikawa had picked up journalism at the local college. 

Iwaizumi’s question was spoken over the comfortable silence that had enveloped the dinner table as Iwaizumi and Oikawa ate. The small cuts in Oikawa’s hands are what caught the other attention. They weren’t huge gashes, only slightly more visible than paper cuts, but the concern in Iwaizumi’s voice was still ever present. 

“Oh, the printer wasn’t working at the writing lab so I had to fix it. Who knew printed parts were so sharp. If only my thick skinned Iwa-Chan was there to fix it for me,” Oikawa said, emphasizing his last statement with a pout.

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and looked as if he was going to continue with his dinner until he paused to speak again.

“I don’t know why you’re working there. Isn’t your internship with the newspaper time consuming enough?”

Oikawa sighed, this was a conversation they had multiple times. Iwaizumi would question why Oikawa had picked up a job and Oikawa would always respond the same way.

“I need the money, Hajime. An unpaid internship doesn’t pay the bills.”

“Yeah but I can,” Iwaizumi said, like he always does. 

Oikawa plastered a smile on his face, which he knew looked forced, while he picked up his empty plate to bring it to the kitchen.

“Iwa-Chan always treating me like a trophy wife.”

Iwaizumi mumbled out something that sounded like ‘stupid shittykawa’ before he also picked up his plate from the table. 

The next day was rough for Oikawa. He had classes back to back until noon, then he went into his internship which ended at 5, only to go back to school to work at the writing lab until 7. By the time he got home at 8 he was beyond exhausted and thankful that he had worked ahead in most of his classes so he didn’t have to do any assignments that night. 

When Oikawa walked into his apartment, the smell of Chinese take out wafted around the rooms. 

Thank god Hajime ordered food, ran through Oikawa’s mind as he wandered to the living room to see Iwaizumi already half way done with his carton of beef and broccoli. 

“Iwa-Chan,” Oikawa whined, “you started eating without me.”

Iwaizumi didn’t even look away from the TV when he answered.

“You took too long getting home. I thought you got off at 7.”

Oikawa sat down next to his boyfriend and picked up his carton full of cashew chicken, snuggling closer once he started eating. 

“I did, but I was a little slow getting home. I’ve been a little sluggish lately.”

“It’s probably from all the jobs you’re working.”

Iwaizumi still didn’t look at Oikawa. His gaze fixed on the TV in front of him. Oikawa didn’t want this to be how he ended his exhausting day. Not with a fight.

“We’ve been over this Hajime,” Oikawa sighed out, “I need to pay my part of the bills. Not everyone has a job in their field that pays them already like you do. Now can we drop this for tonight, I’m tired.”

Iwaizumi pushed Oikawa off of him as he stood up and grunted out whatever before walking back to their bedroom. 

Displaced from his spot leaning against his boyfriend, Oikawa sat up and put his take out container on the coffee table in favor of letting his head fall into his hands. He would give Iwaizumi his space that night and they would talk about it tomorrow before anything spun out of control. 

It sure felt like things were spinning out of control as Oikawa slipped on an apron over his head and walked out from the back room of the cafe he took a weekend job at. It had been a week since Oikawa had slept on the couch with empty Chinese takeout containers littering the table. He hadn’t been able to talk to Iwaizumi the next day or any of the following days because whenever he would get home his boyfriend would either be locked away in their room studying or locked away in their room sleeping. Oikawa didn’t want to bother him while he was doing either and guessed that Iwaizumi didn’t want to bother him either because it had been a few days since his last text from said man. 

Oikawa tried to shake all the negative thoughts from his head as he started to take orders and ring people up for their purchases. Since he had taken the morning shift he had left the apartment before sunrise and was back at around one in the afternoon to a surprisingly empty apartment. Iwaizumi was almost always home on Saturdays working on assignments for the upcoming week unless Oikawa drug him out. Instead of worrying about where his boyfriend was, Oikawa decided to lay down on the couch to rest for a minute, though it would turn out to be longer than that. 

The apartment was shrouded in darkness save for the sliver of light that was shining down the hallway from the bedroom. Oikawa picked himself up off the couch, glancing at the time and being surprised that it was 7 pm, and walked towards the open door at the end of the hall. Once he stepped inside the room he found Iwaizumi seated at their shared desk studying some sort of biology video on his laptop. The simple sight of his boyfriend quirked the ends of Oikawa’s lips up and he closed the distance between them so he could press kisses to the side of Iwaizumi's neck. 

Iwaizumi only grunted at the surprising onslaught of affection which would have deterred anyone else other than a persistent Oikawa. 

“Where were you today,” Oikawa asked, still nuzzling himself into his boyfriend.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Iwaizumi retorted quickly.

“I was at work.”

“You don’t work on weekends.”

“Well now I do.”

The whole interaction took place without Iwaizumi looking at or turning towards Oikawa, making the latter’s chest constrict. 

“I may or may not have picked up some shifts at the cafe near campus. They were short staffed and needed the help,” Oikawa explained, still trying to lean impossibly closer to Iwaizumi. 

“Jesus Christ Tooru.”

Iwaizumi pushed Oikawa off of him and scrubbed his hands over his face as if he was exhausted. 

“Why do you keep getting all these jobs? You don’t need them, you’re busy enough with your school work and your internship. Which is really important for you by the way. You can’t let other things get in the way of doing your best with this newspaper.”

The concern was evident in Iwaizumi’s voice but that didn’t stop the hurtful words that tumbled out of Oikawa’s mouth.

“Not all of us can have daddies money Hajime. Some of us have to work for everything we have.”

Oikawa knew he had messed up the second the words left his mouth, and he also knew that he couldn’t unsay them or fix whatever damage he had done. 

The stone cold stare he received was exactly what Oikawa had expected. Iwaizumi getting up and grabbing his keys, wallet, and phone was not. As the shorter man walked towards the door, Oikawa panicked and reached out to place an iron grip on Iwaizumi’s forearm.

“Hajime…” 

The name tumbled off of his lips like a plea, a prayer, a shot in the dark. 

For the first time in a long time Iwaizumi looked Oikawa in the eyes, but there wasn’t anger behind them, instead there was sadness, exhaustion, maybe a little bit of guilt. Oikawa felt Iwaizumi peel his hand off of him but didn’t feel much after that. He didn’t even know when he had climbed into bed and wrapped the blankets impossibly tight around himself. He had work tomorrow morning and then he would make this right, he was going to fix whatever rift was seeming to form between the two men. 

The next morning, work was slower than normal for Oikawa because he couldn’t stop thinking about Iwaizumi and how to apologize for what he had said last night. He knew the other man worked just as hard as he did and that he never took handouts from his parents without doing something for them in return. Oikawa knew Iwaizumi was a good son and not a deadbeat like he had insinuated he was the night before. He just sometimes felt like he had to work twice as hard to keep up with his boyfriends pay grade or field experience. Oikawa thought briefly that he should discuss all of this with Iwaizumi but a loud bang knocked him out of his head. 

The door was slammed open with a force a lot stronger than a normal customer would use which caused everyone to look over towards the entrance. Oikawa’s heart must’ve skipped a few beats at what he saw. Iwaizumi stood at the entry way with his eyes glued to Oikawa. He swayed a little as the door shut itself behind him. The lack of stability his partner had made Oikawa uneasy. While he joked around a lot about not needing Iwaizumi, he was actually his rock both metaphorically and literally. The swaying only ever meant one thing, that the shorter man was not in the right head space. Iwaizumi was drunk. He was drunk and showed up at Oikawa’s job possibly putting it in jeopardy. Oikawa had never been this mad at the other man in all their years of friendship and romance. 

“Hajime,” Oikawa grounded out.

“Tooru.”

His name coming out of Iwaizumi’s mouth sounded like a sob. There was hurt behind it and Oikawa could only guess why. Closing his eyes to hide from Iwaizumi’s pleading ones, Oikawa calmed himself enough to step out from behind the counter and walk over to his lover, hoping to coax him into the back room so he wouldn’t disturb all of the guests who were already staring at the two men. 

“Hajime, let’s get you out of here ok? You're not yourself right now.”

Oikawa reached for Iwaizumi’s hand but the latter pulled it away and took a step back.

“No, don’t tell me about being myself. Don’t talk to me about acting different when you’ve been acting different for months!”

The increase in volume from the other man made Oikawa flinch backwards. Iwaizumi never raised his voice like that at him, never raised it to a shout. Iwaizumi’s parents had taught him to be refrained and polite like a gentleman, which is what the whole town knew him as, much unlike Oikawa’s parents who taught him to be fierce and independent. So for this volume to come from Iwaizumi, it was a shock to Oikawa as well as a majority of the patrons. 

“You,” Iwaizumi said with his finger pointed in his boyfriend's chest, “you are always gone recently. I never get to see you anymore. And when I do see you you have more important things to do like school work. I thought that maybe you were cheating on me until I realized that you were working all these fucking jobs!”

The curse that came out of Iwaizumi’s mouth caught most everyone in the cafe who knew him off guard, but he continued.

“I thought I wasn’t good enough. Hell, I still think I’m not good enough. But now that I know about all your jobs I know why you’re always gone and always exhausted and always...and always never around for me.”

Tears started to form in Iwaizumi’s eyes which pushed Oikawa over the edge quickly, leaving them both tearing up. Iwaizumi continued his rant as Oikawa’s brain short circuited on what to do. 

“Fuck Tooru, just let me take care of you if money is this much of an issue. Let me pay for whatever you need. Let me support you! I’m here for that. I’m here for that.”

Oikawa snapped out of his haze when an older woman off to the side sniffled as she cried for the two boys in front of her. 

“Hajime, please can we do this in the back room?”

Oikawa was pleading with his lover, tugging on his hand to get him to follow him away from prying eyes of people who Iwaizumi had worked so hard to gain respect from. Luckily, Iwaizumi stumbled behind him as they found their way to the break room. 

“Hajime, what have you done,” Oikawa scolds as he whips around to face the other man, tears still evident in both of their eyes.

Iwaizumi doesn’t say anything in response, just stumbles to a chair and shakily sits himself down. 

“You embarrassed me at work, at a job that I really need. And you made a fool of yourself in front of some of your dad’s patients who will be your patients too once you take over the practice! Why are you even drinking at 10 in the morning?”

Iwaizumi mumbled something, staring holes into the floor, which aggravated Oikawa even more.

“What are you saying, I can’t hear you when you mumble like you're 5 years old.”

Iwaizumi pulled his head up to lock eyes with Oikawa, 

“You don’t need this job! You don’t need either of your jobs! I can pay for everything if that’s what you’re worried about. Let me do that so I can have you back.”

Oikawa didn’t respond right away, he was still a little shaken by what had happened a few minutes before. Instead of continuing the conversation with Iwaizumi, who wasn’t in a right state of mind, Oikawa fished his phone out of his back pocket to call their mutual friend Mattsun to pick up the drunk man. 

The phone rang three times before it was picked up.

“Oikawa? You hate calling people. Are you ok?”

“Mattsun,” Oikawa had to pause, his voice threatening to crack, “can you come get Hajime at the cafe next to campus? He’s drunk and I’m working a shift.”

There was a short pause before Mattsun’s drawl was heard again.

“Yeah, I’m on my way. Give me 10 minutes”

Knowing that Mattsun was on his way released a little bit of anxiety from Oikawa, but his heart and mind were still racing. Turning back around, Oikawa found the other man in the room staring back at him. His eyes looked tired and void which broke Oikawa, the dam of tears he had been holding back were let loose and he crumbled to his knees. 

“Tooru.”

Oikawa didn’t look up from where his face was buried in his hands. The only thoughts running through his head were how he had caused this situation, how he could be the downfall of his whole relationship, one they had built up for years. Fingers brushed against his wrist, trying to coax his hands down and lips were pressed against the top of his head.

“Tooru please look at me.”

Shakily, Oikawa took his hands away from his face. The void look had been replaced with concern.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Oikawa whispered.

“Like what?”

Iwaizumi’s breath fanned over Oikawa’s face, the stench of alcohol still present. 

“Like this isn’t my fault. Like we’re not falling apart.”

“We’re not falling apart. We’re just in a rough patch. And it’s not all your fault.” 

Oikawa took a shaky breath in.

“I,” Iwaizumi paused, “I should have made it more clear that all I want to do is take care of you. That I can take care of you. Tooru, you don’t have to feel like you’re leeching off of me. This is gonna sound so patriarchal, but I want you to be dependent on me right now. I have the means to get you through your school so why won’t you let me?”

Oikawa laughed a little through his tears which were subsiding.

“You just never want me to leave you.”

“You’re right, I don’t want you to ever leave me. I want you to be home more often actually. You’re always gone,” Iwaizumi said.

“Sorry I don’t have a nine to five job like you Iwa-Chan.”

Iwaizumi sighed, pulling Oikawa into himself so he could wrap his arms around him. 

“You would have a nine to five if you stopped picking up extra ones.”

A few knocks from the open break room door interrupted their conversation. Mattsun stood in the doorway, wearily looking between the two men. 

“I can wait out in the car if you two need more time,” Mattsun offered.

“No, no. I think we’ve come to an agreement actually,” Oikawa said while standing up from where he was seated on the floor.

Iwaizumi also stood, if a little wobbly, and looked at Oikawa with his eyebrows knitted together.

“We have?”

Pulling his apron over his head, Oikawa walked out of the break room to find the store owner. 

“I’m so sorry, I know I only started a few days ago but I’ve realized that I need to start prioritizing my loved one and career path.” 

Taking the apron that Oikawa had handed over to her, the owner nodded with a smile on her face.

“I completely understand. Go be with him. He’s a good man,” she said, glancing behind him to smile at Iwaizumi as well. 

A few of the old ladies who had been in the cafe from the beginning of the ordeal started to clap for the couple as they walked out of the store which caused both men to go red in the face. 

Once outside, Mattsun offered to drive both men home since Oikawa had walked to work. They agreed, Oikawa not wanting a tipsy Iwaizumi to walk home. 

Once dropped off, the couple walked into their apartment to take a nap. Iwaizumi because he needed to sleep off the alcohol and Oikawa because he was exhausted in general.

**Author's Note:**

> I edited this one! (Kinda lol)


End file.
